The costs associated with maintaining a Covid-free environment were never budgeted for schools in 2020. Yet they are having to foot the bill for personal protective equipment, extra cleaning, more staff and also for the physical adaptations required for schools to be safe. One of the major issues lies with staffing costs. In the UK the test and trace system system is currently “unreliable” and means that teachers are having to self-isolate, sometimes unnecessarily, as they wait for results, leaving Head Teachers not knowing from one day to the next what level of staffing they have. Consequently they are having to work 70-hour weeks to try to keep up and continue to provide an apparent normality of teaching. While the article refers to the situation in the UK, the rest of the world is also suffering similar issues. It is up to governments to provide the extra support, and funds to ensure that a further six months does not go down the drain. Coupled with this issue is the lack of availability – where funds exist – of laptops, chromebooks or tablets for those without any device. The pandemic has left all manufacturers with a nice problem to have, but with the consequences paid for by the children who need these.
